Return to Ribblestrop (12 page)

‘How did you know that?’

‘He wrote me a letter. We were best friends, us and Tomaz. It was just the three of us, it was so crazy. I was so happy, Millie. I was going out to Colombia – he wanted me to, but I
said—’

‘How come you burned the school down?’ said Anjoli. ‘Why do you burn down a place if you like it so much?’

‘That was years ago,’ said Miles. ‘I was so different. If I tell you a secret, though . . .’ He lowered his voice. ‘Will you keep it, forever?’ He wrapped his
blazer around himself, shivering with cold. His hand disappeared into his pocket. It came out with two toy soldiers, which he threw to the ground, then a thin bar of ivory. He pressed a switch and
a knife-blade flashed in his hand, long and lethally sharp. He touched it hard to his palm and, before Millie, Tomaz or Anjoli could move, he was showing them a line of oozing blood. His eyes
glittered and he let a drop of blood fall on the stonework.

‘Give me your hands,’ he said, smiling. ‘We better take some vows! Swear allegiance, yes?’

‘How old are you, Miles?’ said Israel.

‘What? Thirteen and a half.’

‘You thirteen and you’re like a baby. This is the kind of baby crap I was doing five years ago.’

Miles stared at him. ‘Yes, but Sanchez and I are blood brothers.’

‘So what?’

‘So you’ve got to swear to be loyal. Or you can do a dare.’

‘We’re not into that stuff,’ said Millie.

Miles looked at her and his smile widened. He pushed back his hair and peered at the enamel badge on her lapel. ‘Ah!’ he said, laughing. ‘I forgot! You’re in charge now,
huh? So you’ve got to be responsible! We could still be a gang, though, if you want.’ He leaped to his feet and saluted. ‘Protect each other, to the death. By the way, I can do
curses too – I was taught. Look at this – can you see this?’

He pulled his sleeve up, revealing a thin forearm. On it, running up and down and side to side, were several scars; when he clenched his fist, they stood out vivid on his pale skin. There were
strange blotches of tattoos as well, and Millie thought she could make out a large letter S curling round the boy’s elbow.

‘You been to prison?’ said Anjoli. ‘They look like jail tattoos.’

‘Someone’s been torturing him, I reckon,’ said Israel.

Anjoli said something in his own language and both boys spluttered with laughter.

‘I did a curse last term,’ said Miles, loudly. ‘On Caspar Vyner’s gran, because of what she said about my mother. See that one there . . .’ He traced a long scar
with the point of his knife. ‘That means
to the death
. That one there is for
never tell, even under fire
.’

‘I’m going,’ said Israel. ‘This guy’s completely cracked.’

Miles grabbed his arm. ‘No, wait,’ he said. ‘You want to hear the secret? I can still tell you and I bet you haven’t heard it.’

Israel was moving to the door, though, pushing Anjoli in front of him. ‘I think you got a problem you ought to deal with, boy,’ he said. ‘You’ve only been here half a day
and you’re scaring the hell out of me.’

Miles let them go and waited for the door to close. Then he sat down with his back against it and smiled again, eyes closed. ‘I am so happy to be back,’ he said, softly.
‘You’re not scared, are you, Millie? Tom?’

Millie looked at him. ‘Scared of what?’

‘Me.’

Millie shook her head. ‘You haven’t done any listening, Miles, that’s your problem. Do you know what went on here last term?’

‘No.’

‘Sanchez didn’t tell you? In the letter he wrote –
if
he wrote to you . . .’

‘He said some stuff, but—’

‘When I ran away,’ said Tomaz, ‘I found the tunnels. The treasure you’re talking about – I found it.’

Miles sat forward. ‘You found the treasure?’

‘My God,’ said Millie. ‘You’ve shut him up.’

‘I
live
with it,’ said Tomaz. ‘That’s what Millie’s talking about. I’m looking after it, down underground.’

Miles opened his mouth, but no words came. His eyes went from Millie to Tomaz, glittering still.

‘Tomaz has a house down there,’ said Millie. ‘It’s where the ghost lives – we can show it to you. It’s the most beautiful place you’ve ever been and
Lord Vyner’s down there too.’

‘You found it all!’ whispered Miles. He licked his lips and the smile was back. ‘Did you . . . When you were going through stuff . . . Listen. Did you find a sword?’ He
twisted up, onto his knees.

Tomaz nodded. ‘There are six swords,’ he said. ‘There’re suits of armour, there’s a lance—’

‘The special sword,’ said Miles. ‘One with diamonds?’

‘There’s all sorts down there,’ said Millie. ‘Tomaz has arranged it all: it’s a palace. But if we show you, you’ve got to promise not to be weird about
it.’

Miles took Tomaz by the hand and started to laugh. ‘This is amazing!’ he said. ‘People have been looking for this stuff for years! I got a paper here – look at this . .
.’ He searched around in an inside pocket, squirming to locate something. At last he brought out a small piece of card, folded and crumpled. ‘You’re not going to believe this!
When we got back to London and I knew I was coming back, I went to the library, OK? I looked up
Vyner
, and the woman said I should go to a museum, if I was that interested, because I was
telling her all about this place. Listen! I told her I’d been to the school, and about those monks, and so she told me about this museum in London. There was a floor where you couldn’t
go unless you had special permission. But they let me in—’

‘Why?’ said Millie.

‘What do you mean,
why?
They let me in—’

‘Why’s anyone going to let a scruffy kid like you in? Is this all some fantasy, Miles? Just how screwy
are
you?’

Miles stared at her and grinned again. ‘You don’t have to believe anything, if you don’t want to. But I found out secrets . . .’ He touched the badge on Millie’s
blazer. ‘You’d better decide whose side you’re on, Head Girl, because we are in danger.’

‘We don’t have sides here,’ said Millie. ‘And Sanchez is Head Boy, or did he forget to tell you that in his letter?’

‘He told me everything.’

‘Then you’re a liar, because he doesn’t even know himself. Don’t tell us lies, Miles – we will squash you like a bug.’

‘Will you tell us what happened?’ said Tomaz, quietly. ‘In the museum?’

Miles sat back and unfolded the card.

‘OK,’ he said. ‘I met an old man. Professor C.W. Williams. About a hundred years old, worked at the museum all his life – and I told him all about the school and the
ghost.’

‘What did he say?’ said Tomaz.

Miles pushed his hair back. ‘He just kind of looked at me. He didn’t interrupt me once, because he was interested. And after I told him, guess what? He said he had studied the Vyner
family, and he said Cyril Vyner was not a thief, like some people think. He was not a smuggler, or a crook. According to the man in the museum, he was collecting up all the stuff his family used to
own, because the family go back hundreds of years, and Lord Vyner was pulling stuff together. But he was looking for one thing in particular that’s been lost for centuries.’

‘What?’ said Millie. ‘What’s in the paper you’re holding? Get to the point.’

Miles took out a small torch and switched it on. He turned the card around, revealing a handful of lines, in looping, untidy biro.

‘That’s a kid’s writing,’ said Millie.

‘Course it is,’ said Miles. ‘I copied it from what the professor showed me. An old manuscript.’

Tomaz peered at it. His reading was improving, but it was still a struggle, so Millie leaned in and read aloud:

‘Lightning,’ said Miles.

‘I can’t read the next bit.’

Miles took his paper back and started again. His voice took on a solemn gravity, as if the words were loaded with wisdom:

‘The lion and the lamb is on the school flag,’ said Millie. ‘It’s the school emblem.’

‘I know,’ said Miles. ‘Coincidence, huh? Listen:

‘Where’s it from?’ said Tomaz, after a moment of silence. ‘You got this in the museum?’

Miles folded the paper up. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘The most important thing the Vyners ever owned was the sword of a saint. Saint Caspar. The poem goes back a thousand years –
it was written in French and this is a translation. The sword was given to the Vyner family, for the crusades. It’s priceless and it has to stay here, in the family home.’

He looked up at Tomaz.

‘You said you found a sword?’

Tomaz looked at Millie. ‘I found six.’

‘But is there a special one? Is there one that looks like it’s priceless and was made for a saint?’

Tomaz paused. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘We can go down and look.’

‘The old man said it wouldn’t be a real, fighting sword: it would be an emblem. It has jewels in it, worth billions.’

‘I’ve not seen anything like that,’ said Tomaz. ‘But there’re rooms I can’t get to.’

‘Let’s go down and start looking,’ said Millie.

‘Hang on a second,’ said Miles. ‘Let me tell you something else this professor told me. You know the monks . . . the Brethren? OK . . .’ He paused. ‘Listen to this
– and you can believe me, if you want. The reason they came to Ribblestrop is to guard the sword. There’s a curse, I’m dead serious – I know you think I’ve got a thing
about curses, but the man in the museum told me. He said that in the right hands it’s good, but in the wrong hands, nothing but bad. It has to stay with the house, but people are looking for
it, wanting to—’

‘What people?’ said Millie.

‘A man. Professor Williams had a visit, about a week before I went there. An old guy, asking questions. He had a police letter, saying he was investigating the smuggling of antiques. The
professor said it happens every now and then – people pick up the scent, and go looking for it. They never get anywhere, but he said this guy was desperate.’

‘For what?’

‘To find it, I imagine. It’s priceless!’

‘I wish Sanchez was here,’ said Tomaz. ‘I’ve been living down there for such a long time, and now you’ve got me scared. You think we should look for it?’

‘If it’s in your house, then it’s safe,’ said Millie. ‘We’re the only people who know how to get down. If we meet anyone snooping around, we tell them
nothing.’

‘I think I’m a guardian of the sword,’ said Miles. ‘That’s what I think.’

Millie looked at him. ‘What are you talking about? You burned the school down — that’s a great guardian. And you’re crazy and the only reason you’re back
here—’

‘No,’ persisted Miles. ‘Listen. I think it’s why I was brought back.’ He was fumbling in another pocket. ‘Maybe that’s why Lord Vyner came to see me,
all that time ago. Maybe I’m chosen.’

Millie was smiling.

‘Israel was right,’ she said, laughing. ‘You are scary. And if that ghost came to see you, it was because he wanted to see a freak. How are you going to protect anyone or
anything?’

‘I’m here for a reason, Millie – I’m sure of it.’

‘One of these days I’ll tell you why you’re here. You will get the shock of your life.’

‘I’ve got a job to do,’ said Miles. ‘And I mean business.’

Now there was something heavy in his hand. It was wrapped in a dark grey cloth, and he let it rest on his lap. He looked up at Tomaz and smiled, peaceful and serene.

Tomaz said, ‘What’s that, Miles?’

‘Sanchez said I should carry it,’ said Miles. ‘For our protection.’

He was unwrapping it, carefully, and Millie knew what it was before she saw it. She smelled it – a sharp odour of metal and grease – and she felt suddenly afraid. Miles removed the
last corner of cloth and there it sat: a quiet, unassuming thing.

It was Sanchez’s gun.

Millie controlled her voice. ‘How did he say you could carry it, Miles? You should not have that.’

Tomaz had stood up and was backing away.

‘It was in his letter,’ said Miles. ‘He said he wanted me to look after it, so I can protect you.’

‘Can I see the letter? Do you have it with you?’

Miles looked at her, his eyes shining brighter than ever. ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘You don’t think I’d let you read my personal mail, do you? I think you’re a
very nice person, but I hardly know you.’

He took the gun in his right hand and slipped his finger over the trigger.

Millie could feel how frightened Tomaz was. She wanted to move as well, but something held her and she made another attempt. ‘Miles,’ she said, ‘that’s not your property.
Sanchez has it for his
own
protection and it’s not a toy.’

‘I know it’s not a toy.’

‘There’s no way he would let you play with it!’

Miles weighed the gun and turned it. He pressed a catch and at once the chamber was revealed. There were six bullets, snug in their sockets. He slammed it back into the breech, clicked off the
safety catch, and drew back the hammer.

‘We used to play with it all the time,’ he said. ‘Didn’t we, Tom? I was the protector.’

‘Please don’t,’ said Tomaz, very quietly.

‘You need very steady hands,’ said Miles. ‘We used to play a game, but I don’t play it any more. Didn’t Sanchez tell you, Millie?’

He was aiming the gun at the low wall, opposite. The hammer stood up ready to fire and Miles’s finger seemed to be uncertain. It was not on the trigger; it rested on the guard.

‘Did you keep our secret, Tom?’

‘Stop it, Miles,’ said Tomaz. ‘Please stop.’

‘I played it, but I stopped. It’s how I know I’m chosen.’